or failing governments. and these opportunists are maybe unpredictable. and i always use iraq as an example. there's lots of opportunists in iraq. iran, turkey, saudi arabia, kuwait, nonstate actors. all opportunists trying to take advantage of a situation. how does that project itself around the world? what does that mean to us as we look at the future of conflict? the cast of conflict is changing, the operational environment and conflict is changing, but in my mind the fundamental nigh ture of war remains the same. that's the struggle to influence populations and governments. that has not changed. so it's how we continue to understand that struggle within the new operational environment and context that we see it. the army was created 237 years ago to defend this great nation and in my opinion that imperative has not changed. so as i adapt the force for foot ture, the one thing i tell everyone is that we are starting from a position of strength. why do i say that? because the army specifically we have the